


The Fear Of Falling

by NovaStars42



Series: The Kids Aren't Alright [20]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Aftermath, Blind Character, Fluff with a side of angst, Forgiveness, Friendship, Gen, Guilt, Healing, Humanstuck, Jealousy, Latula and Mituna eloped, Lies, Love, Making Up, Trust, Understanding, coming clean, keeping secrets, missing person, pyralspite the guide dog, shes not really missing though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-23
Updated: 2017-01-23
Packaged: 2018-09-19 12:52:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9441149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NovaStars42/pseuds/NovaStars42
Summary: In which Latula asks Terezi to do the impossible, keep a secret. Terezi isn’t sure shes up to the challenge.Begin act 3Occurs the day after Another Vice





	

**Author's Note:**

> The last time I worked on the parts I put together to make this chapter was 4/22/16 and I’m posting it today on 1/23/17. This has been in the works for a while!! Enjoy.
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGE381tbQa8

“Thank you, yes, I’ll keep you updated.”

I sat on my living room couch listening to my mother on the phone in our kitchen. She hung up the phone and it was quiet for a long time. She dialed another number and another conversation ensued exactly as the ones before it. She asked the person on the other end if they knew where Latula was.

I couldn’t see it, but I knew Latula’s car wasn’t in our driveway. She’d left yesterday afternoon and she didn’t come back. My mom hadn’t noticed right away, Latula was always gone on Friday nights. Today was Saturday though, mom was home from the law firm and Latula wasn’t here when she called her down for breakfast.

She couldn’t file a police report unless she’d been missing a full twenty-four hours. Until then, she decided to start calling all the other parents in our neighborhood.  
That was stupid of her. Of course, the parents didn’t know anything, but all of us kids knew.

“Pyral,” I called and I heard my dog get up, his nails clicking on the floor. I grabbed on to his leather collar and stood up. I let him lead me to the kitchen, my hand on the wall. I had a pretty good map in my head of the house but right now I was kind of shook up.

“Mom,” I said, letting go of Pyral.

“Yes, Terezi,” she sighed, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, I’ll make you something for dinner just let me call one more person.”

I swallowed my words, frowning.

I heard the phone beeping and I could vaguely hear it ringing.

“Hello?” My mother said, “hi, Psiioniic, its Neophyte. Have you seen Latula? She didn’t come home last night and I was wondering if- really?”

I couldn’t make out Mr. Captor’s words.

“Okay. Yes, if I hear from him I’ll call you. Thanks.”

She sighed and I was sure she put her head in her hands. It was an old habit of hers.

“Terezi, I’m so sorry.”

“Why are you sorry?” I asked.

“Because I just,” she sighed a third time, “I lost your sister and now I’m neglecting you. What do you want to eat?”

“I don’t care,” I huffed. I sat down at the table, fiddling with them hem of my shirt. She sat next to me for a moment before she got up and I heard her shuffling around in the kitchen. Minutes later I could smell hotdogs and I could hear the skin cracklings in the frying pan.

“Psiioniic Captor said Mituna hadn’t come home last night either, so I’m thinking they’re together,” my mom explained. No duh.

Pyral’s nails clicked on our hardwood floors. He set his head on my lap and I scratched him behind the ears.

“It’s just so funny nobody has seen her,” she mused, and the frying pan sizzled harshly.

I had. I knew exactly where she was. Latula made me promise not to tell.

I couldn’t see my mother’s face but I knew she was worried. Earlier I thought maybe she’d been crying. I weighed my options. Betray my sister or let my mother suffer. Neither was a good option.

“You're quiet tonight,” my mother pointed out, and I could sort of feel it as she moved around the room. A plate clinked on our table as she set it down in front of me. She sat down next to me.

I picked up my hotdog and bit into it. It was still cold in the middle but I ate it anyway.

I wasn’t even finished eating yet when I heard my mom start dialing the phone to call someone else. I bit my lip.

“Have you called the Vantas house yet?” I asked.

“No,” she replied, the phone still ringing.

“I’ll go over and ask them in person then, I bet Kankri knows something,” I lied.

“Do you need help?”

I rolled my useless eyes. Of course, she’d ask me that.

“I’m blind, mom, not helpless,” I reminded her. She didn’t reply, just hung up the phone when no one answered. I wished I could see her face at that moment. I felt a little bad for saying that to her, but I hated it when she acted like I couldn’t do regular things just because I was blind.

I called my dog and gripped his collar, leading us to the front door where I slipped on his harness and buckled it firmly around him. I opened the door and he lead me out into the warm summer evening.

The first time I stepped outside after my accident, I cried. I still had a vivid memory of what the neighborhood looked like, but it was difficult to deal with not actually being able to see it. Now it was like I inhabited detailed paintings in my head. I could still see where I was, I could picture it, but I could see it.

I got Pyral three months after my accident and he was both my new best friend and my guardian. He helped me down the street and kept me out of people’s front lawns. Without him, I’d probably be wandering aimlessly with my cane.

The Vantas house as I remember it was sort of a burgundy red house with gray shutters and a red door, marked with a cancer zodiac sign from a Halloween prank gone bad. Mr. Vantas was a pretty easy going person, but since the Fourth of July, everyone had made sort of a point to avoid him. Lucky for me, he wasn’t home.  
I beat on the front door, Pyral stood quietly at my side. I heard the door open.

“Hello Terezi, how are you today?” Kankri Vantas answered the door. He was a long time friend of my sister’s, but he hadn’t been around much since she and Mituna started dating.

“I’m good,” I grinned, “well, as good as a blind kid wandering around in the dark could be.”

“The suns still out,” Kankri informed me.

“It’s all black to me,” I laughed. I’d hung around him enough to know which unsettled face he was making at me.

“I’m just kidding,” I waved him off, “is Karkat home?”

“Yes,” he said hesitantly, “but so is Dave Strider.”

I thought for a moment. I don’t know why I expected anything different. Karkat didn’t like me the same way I liked him… Or the way I thought maybe I liked him, and that was just.. Just there. That was just how it was. If I was going, to be honest, I still didn’t know how I felt about him six weeks later.

“Could I talk to him?” I asked anyway.

“Sure. Come in, you can leave your shoes on,” Kankri offered.

All the houses on this block were exactly the same. My house had the exact same floor plan as Karkat’s so I had no trouble traversing the house with Pyral at my side. We followed Kankri to the back of the house and then outside again. Kankri stopped at the back door, letting me out into his fenced in yard.

“Karkat?” I questioned. His back deck was different from mine, I didn’t know where it ended so I stayed put.

“Over here,” he spoke, and I heard his feet on the grass as he came closer to me.

“The step is about two feet in front of you,” he said hesitantly like he was afraid to insult me. I didn’t need his help but I didn’t mention it. I knew Pyral wouldn't let me fall, he’d back off if he thought it was dangerous. I took a few steps forward and found the landing, and I got down the steps without any further coaching.

“Hi Terezi,” Dave greeted. I could smell his stupid hipster perfume from where I stood.

“Hi guys,” I greeted in a tone as even as I could make it.

“What’s up?” Dave asked. His voice sounded like he was sitting below me, probably on the ground.

“I just had to get out of my house for a while.”

“Your sister?” Karkat asked.

“How’d you know?”

“Kankri won’t shut the hell up about her,” Karkat was probably rolling his eyes.

I didn’t say anything, I just sat down in the grass. Pyral sat down next to me.

“I know how much you like her, do you wanna talk about it?” Karkat questioned. He sounded level with me, so he was probably sitting too.

This was getting weird, quick. Did I really wanna talk about this with my once best friend/failed crush thing? I’d told Vriska to piss up a rope earlier this week and we hadn’t reconciled yet. I was out of options.

“My mom is freaking out about Latula and I keep trying to tell her, but I can never make myself,” I sighed deeply, “Latula made me promise. But it’s not right to do this to my mom.”

“Jesus Christ, what? Does your stooge of a sister honestly think it’s up to you to keep her secret? Oh fuck,” Karkat cursed. I furrowed my eyebrows.

“I mean, what in the scum sucking hell does she think she’s doing anyway? They honestly couldn’t wait until, I dunno, they weren’t living in their godforsaken parent’s houses? They’re gonna make themselves miserable just like they’ve done to everyone around them.”

Kankri must have really pissed Karkat off to shove him off the deep end into a rant like that.

“Dude, not helping,” Dave told him. Karkat heaved a huge sigh and continued calmer.

“Sorry, I got off track there. You should tell your mom.”

I turned my head down. I wished I’d worn a hood.

“Latula will be mad. Mom’ll scream at her,” I said after a long pause.

“Latula did that to herself,” Karkat replied firmly.

“We know she’s your sister Terezi, and I dunno what the hells going on but it sounds like it’d be better for you to just tell your mom,” Dave added. “Mom trumps sister. Sorry, I don’t make the rules.”

“Yeah,” I mumbled.

“Latula loves you. She won’t be mad for long,” Karkat assured. “Plus, I mean it’s not like she wasn’t gonna get screamed at anyway.”

He had a point.

“Yeah. It’s like stepping on a Lego you left on the floor. Like that shit became lodged right in there, and your asking who the fuck could have done this, this inconceivable tragedy,” Dave’s words made me laugh.

“Okay Strider, no more metaphors. Or coffee,” Karkat chastised. I laughed a little harder.

“Thanks you guys,” I grinned.

“Your welcome,” Karkat replied just as Dave said “No problem.”

“You should come hang out with us more often, it’s dead around here without your bone chilling cackles,” Dave continued. He was probably smirking.

“Are you sure I wouldn't be third-wheeling?” I asked. They were a thing after all, and I hadn’t spoken to either of them much since they’d gotten together. We’d all been good friends once upon a time.

They were much, much better friends to me than Vriska had been, I realized.

“Nah, you're too cool to third wheel.”

I smiled a little wider. “Thanks, cool kid.”

Hanging out with these shmucks was way better than spending the summer alone.

“Can I pet your dog now?” Dave deadpanned.

“Sure.” I wasn’t supposed to let him, Pyral was working and he wasn’t supposed to get treats or pets from anyone else but me. I could let Dave slide, though, just this once. He was a pretty awesome dog.

“It’s super rude to ask people to pet their service dog, just so you know,” I stated, reaching out to pet my dog too.

“Shit, really? I’m sorry,” he apologized. I just sort of shrugged.

“It’s fine. At least you aren’t gawking. Sometimes when Latula takes us to the mall people take pictures of him. That makes me so mad. Sometimes I can hear their phones taking a picture, or sometimes Latula straight up tells them off,” I vented.

“That is pretty inconsiderate of them,” Karkat agreed.

“I think I better head home now, and tell my mom,” I said after a while of silence and dog petting. I stood up, and Pyral stood with me, ready to be my guide despite the extra attention. He was good at his job, and he loved me.

“Want me to walk you out?” Dave asked.

“I’m good I think, just direct me to the gate?” I requested. I heard the grass rustle as Karkat stood up.

“This way,” he said, and I walked along side of him. The Vantas family had a fence around their entire yard, but they did have a gate in front that let out onto the front yard. I waited patiently as he fussed with the latch and let me out.

“Thanks.”

“Don’t be a stranger,” he bid. I smiled and waved over my shoulder.

Maybe this was it. Maybe six weeks was long enough to forgive and understand. It didn’t hurt anymore to be near them. Dave and Karkat were happy together, and maybe I should settle for being happy as their friend.

I made the short walk home slowly and climbed my steps even slower. I resolved to tell my mom everything, and I committed to it as I entered my house.

“Mom?” I called, shutting the front door behind me.

“In here,” my mother responded.

“Hi, Terezi,” came the lofty voice of Vriska’s mom. She and my mom went way back, apparently. I’d never actually got the story of how they’d meet out of them.

“Hi, Mrs. Serket. Is Vriska here?” I asked

“Call me Mindfang, Mrs. Serket sounds stuffy,” she replied, “and no, Vriska’s out with her girlfriend.”

Out with her girlfriend again? We weren’t talking when she and Meenah got together, but I’d known about her crush. It didn’t surprise me when they got together. What did surprise me what the incredible amount of time they spent together.

Making my way into the kitchen, I seated myself at the kitchen table. I moved the chair cockeyed from the table, facing away from the surface so I could position Pyral between my legs.

“Sure,” I said flatly because I didn’t know how else to respond.

“Did Kankri Vantas know anything?” My mother asked, standing somewhere to my left in the kitchen. I wondered if she was cooking, but we’d just ate.

“No,” I replied, leaning down to take Pyral’s harness off if him.

There was some shuffling around in the kitchen, I thought maybe paperwork but I couldn’t be sure. I heard the water hit the bottom of the sink and it ran for a few minutes while my mom washed a pan. Nobody said anything.

The surface of my skin felt like a million pins were pricking me, while my muscles felt like something was crawling between them. I was getting a headache, and my stomach was starting to feel sick.

“Mom,” I said, and my mouth felt dry, “I know where Latula is.”

The pan my mother was washing fell to the sink basin, and something else clattered to the floor. She rushed to me. I felt her hand on my cheek, tilting my face to look at her, and her other on my shoulder, gripping the fabric of my shirt. I stiffened.

“What did you say?” She asked, breathlessly. She was probably kneeling in front of me. Her face was probably only inches from mine.

“I know where Latula is,” I repeated.

My mother’s grip on my shirt tightened.

“Terezi, why didn’t you tell me?” She sounded like she was either in tears or near tears.

“Neophyte, you should sit down,” Mindfang said softly, and she sounded closer. I wondered if she had her hand on my mom's shoulder or something else comforting.

“Terezi, why didn’t you say anything?” My mother demanded.

“She asked me not to,” I confessed, and it sounded like a confession, no matter how hard I tried to keep emotion out of my voice, “She made me promise not to tell. All the other kids in the neighborhood that went to school with them know. Aranea knew, Meulin knew, but it’s a secret. Nobody was supposed to squeal.”

“Where is she?” My mother demanded, hanging off my words.

“She drove Mituna and herself to Las Vegas. They wanted to get married.”

“Neophyte,” Mindfang spoke again, and my mother’s hands left my person. A chair nearby scraped on the floor. My mother sighed deeply. I heard the chair creek as she sat down.

“I just don’t understand? Why wouldn't they just- just,” my mother paused, seemingly at a loss, “why didn’t they just go down to the court house or something? Or leave a note? Or say something?”

“Am I in trouble?” I asked quietly.

My mother drew in a sharp breathe and waited a moment before she responded. “No. No, let me just. No. We’ll talk later but right now I need to call Psiioniic.”

The chair scraped the floor again and she got up. I heard her take out house phone out of the rack and then walk upstairs. I couldn’t tell where Vriska’s mom was, but then I heard her foot steps in the kitchen. I think she went to the cabinet we kept cups in, and I heard the glass clink as she got one down.

“Would you like some tea, Terezi?” She asked.

“No thank you,” I declined.

I heard the water run and the microwave start and more rummaging through my kitchen cabinets.

“You said Aranea knew that they were leaving?” She asked over the noise.

“Yes, almost everyone did,” I agreed. “Once stuff gets around to Meulin Leijon pretty much everyone knows.”

She hummed, acknowledging my words without any of her own. I heard the water pour and she walked across the kitchen to sit near me at the table.

“You did the right thing, Terezi.”

“It doesn’t feel like it,” I replied. I ducked my head away as a force of habit, turning my face away.

“Sometimes it doesn’t,” Mindfang’s voice softened to a tone I had only ever heard her use with Aranea. Motherly and comforting. “What do you say we organize a movie night or something? I think Aranea is just sitting alone at my house, and your mom could use some calming down.”

“I don’t know how to work the audio description on the television,” I told her.

“I can figure it out. I’ll go get your mom,” she was gone a few moments later, I heard her climbing the stairs.

Latula would be mad at me. I wondered if she’d call my cell phone later. I didn’t know what I would tell her if she did. They probably weren’t even half way to Las Vegas yet. I took my phone out of my pocket and resolved to give it to my mother. My mom could handle it better than me. There wasn’t any shame in not knowing what to do, I figured.

  


**Author's Note:**

> I keep trying, to sum up sub plots and this story just keeps making more. Eventually, this needs an ending, and I dunno how I’m gonna do that.  
> I think this pretty much sums up the Dave/Karkat/Terezi problem that started in chapter two. I think next I’ll try, to sum up the Damara/Kankri/Cronus plot line and after that the Latula college subplot.  
> Kurloz/Meulin needs more time in story to resolve, and I have another Rosemary chapter to occur later, in August. This chapter is set in late July.


End file.
